Chen Junjiang, Director-General of Want Want R&D: The story behind the double-digit growth of performance under the epidemic situation.

Chen Junjiang graduated from the Department of Food Science of Zhongxing University in Taiwan Province and the Institute of Food Engineering of Daye University. He received his bachelor's degree and master's degree in 1992 and 1994 respectively. 1996 joined R&D wangwang group, and is currently the director of product R&D center.

Under the leadership of Mr. Chen, Want Want's team has grown from more than 10 technicians to more than 100 food professionals, with nearly 200 professional product marketing managers.

After more than ten years' growth and the accumulation of technical database, Want Want Product R&D Center now covers rice products, candy colloidal products, alcoholic products, cereal health food, baked snacks, cold chain frozen products, dairy products and beverage products, biotechnology, inspection and analysis and other departments.

Interview with Mr. Chen Junjiang, R&D Director of Want Want Group.

Interpretation of the story behind the double-digit growth of Want Want's performance in the first half of the year under the epidemic situation

Traditional fast-moving enterprises are facing great opportunities and challenges, and innovation is inevitable. Then, in the epidemic era, under such an industry background, Want Want Group's net profit in the first half of the year increased by 20.9% year-on-year, and handed over a dazzling report card.

Behind this report card, it is inseparable from the outstanding performance of several top products of Want Want Group, the innovative concept of functional food layout by its huge and experienced R&D team, and the strict quality control of products from raw materials to production.

In this regard, the conference group of FBFI Food and Beverage Formula Innovation Forum interviewed Mr. Chen Junjiang, the production director and R&D of Want Want Group, and discussed with him on business layout, quality control, frozen products and candy market trends, future product direction and other topics.

In the post-epidemic era, under the severe industry background, Want Want Group's net profit increased by 20.9% in the first half of the year. In Chen Junjiang's view, the double-digit performance growth benefited from the different channels laid out by the Group in recent years.

From developing new retail e-commerce channels to opening their own stores, there are many sub-channels under retail and wholesale channels, which are operated by different business groups. Want Want Group played a beautiful combination boxing in the multi-channel layout.

At the same time, a number of product lines go hand in hand, paving the way for the rapid growth of Want Want Group's performance. In recent years, the more successful products of Want Want Group are frozen products, candy and Explosicum series. Sales of frozen products alone exceeded RMB 300 million.

Another product category that is growing well is candy. Compared with the sales of other candies of 700-800 million RMB, Wangwang's gelatin soft candy has achieved a good result of 2 billion RMB, which is the main product of the candy category of Wangwang Group.

In fact, the R&D Center of Want Want Group has invested huge manpower and financial resources in terms of raw materials, the addition of nutrients, and the flavor and taste of soft candy, making QQ candy popular among young people.

Chen Junjiang said that the R&D center has also broken the inherent concept of "eating sugar is unhealthy" in the market, injected different healthy elements into the production of soft candy, and at the same time reduced the content of carbohydrates, so that consumers can eat sugar healthily and safely.

Many people may not know that QQ candy is gelatin fudge. Consumers can not only eat candy, but also get supplements from protein. A QQ candy protein is nearly 8%~9%. As a nutritional supplement, it will help consumers to enhance their immunity.

In addition, Want Want Explosicum series products are also the group's fist products this year. Chen Junjiang said that Want Want Group has never stopped developing healthy and green products. In the future, a series of functional products such as enhancing immunity, protecting eyes, adding VC and supplementing calcium will be introduced more and more, which also conforms to the general trend of increasing consumer demand for food nutrition.

As for product quality control, Chen Junjiang said that Want Want Group hopes to bring consumers the quality of raw materials and production technology, which can be called first-class products, because Want Want's biggest advantage is quality control in the manufacturing process. With Want Want's current quality control of aquatic products, the defective rate can be controlled at about one in a million. Compared with some large international food companies, the defective rate of Want Want products is only about one third, or even lower.

Chen Junjiang emphasized that in addition to monitoring the whole production process and monitoring the production results, the most important quality control level is at the R&D end. In other words, at the beginning of a product's birth, this quality has already been decided. What kind of materials are selected for R&D determines the quality of products accordingly.

Want Want Group is very strict in the inspection and testing of raw materials in the early stage. Choosing partners also has its own standards, from product stability, quality competitiveness and so on. For each raw material, the main control indicators and key indicators will be set and tested one by one. Anything that has not been tested will not be used. Grasping the quality of products at the source is equal to more than half of success, and the subsequent quality control belongs to Excellence and a higher level.

Innovation is the core of sustainable development of enterprises. Chen Junjiang believes that China catering enterprises should make a breakthrough in product innovation and quality control, so as to move closer to international catering enterprises more quickly.

The innovation of food and beverage enterprises in China has been in a state of slow development, but Want Want Group has broken the inherent investment ratio of production and research in the industry, identified the track value of functional, nutritious and high-quality foods, and continued to innovate with an investment of 500-600 million yuan per year, thus obtaining upgraded products such as QQ soft candy, infant rice fruit, Explosicum series and energy beverage series, as well as high-quality functional foods with various nutritional values.

Chen Junjiang said that innovation is one of the biggest core competitiveness of Want Want Group, and it has also obtained many patents in recent years. In research and development, Want Want Group has a research and development team established for more than 20 years. Up to now, there are about 6-7 core cadres in the R&D team, and their qualifications are all around 15 to 20 years.

Therefore, the concept and values of product research and development are close, so as to complete the research and development of various products quickly and efficiently. There are nearly 100 people in R&D headquarters, and there are also nearly 15 cadres above the first level, which are distributed on the echelon line of each product. Basically, each product has two or more senior R&D personnel with more than ten years' experience.

At the same time, Want Want Group also maintains good cooperative relations with Taiwan Province Zhongxing University Food Research Institute, Jiangnan University, Asian Lactic Acid Bacteria Association and other professional institutions and research institutes. Good technology, good materials and excellent talents have undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for Want Want Group in product innovation and research and development.

As a well-known Taiwan-funded enterprise with a history of 57 years, Want Want Group began to invest and set up factories in the mainland as early as the early 1990s. Founded 34 years ago, Want Want brand has not only gained a firm foothold in the mainland market, but also extended to 59 countries and regions in Asia, North America, Central and South America, Africa, South America, Oceania and Europe.

In the past, in overseas markets, Want Want Group developed its business through distributors, but in recent years, Want Want is constantly trying to further develop in overseas markets. At the beginning of 2020, the factory established by Want Want Group in Vietnam was officially started, and in principle, it was officially put into operation in the second half of 2002/KLOC-0. Through this move, Want Want Group's business will cover the whole of Southeast Asia, which is more conducive to the business layout in the Middle East and even Europe and America.

Chen Junjiang said that in the next step, in order to meet the needs of more consumers, Want Want Group will also set up business offices in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines to conduct research for different consumers, develop targeted products and truly deepen overseas markets.

Finally, Chen Junjiang spoke highly of FBFI Food and Beverage Formulation Innovation Forum and made valuable suggestions.